It was by no means vintage Madrid, and it took an hour, and a magical goal, for the visitors to unlock the Villarreal backline. Cristiano Ronaldo gathered the ball on the left flank, danced inside, burst into the area to collect Mesut Özil's clever back-heeled return pass and rounded the goalkeeper to score. However, with time running out the match erupted. Marcos Senna curled an 83rd-minute free-kick past Iker Casillas into the bottom-right corner, and soon Madrid were two men down, red cards shown to Sergio Ramos.

Third-placed Valencia CF went down 2-1 at home to bottom club Real Zaragoza, who surprisingly boosted their survival propspects despite losing Pablo Álvarez to a 20th-minute red card. Levante UD are now within three points of Valencia after their fourth win from five league games with a 2-1 triumph at Real Sociedad de Fútbol.

Elsewhere, a Falcao double earned Club Atlético de Madrid a 2-1 win against Athletic Club, while Álvaro broke the hearts of struggling Real Sporting de Gijón, earning RCD Mallorca a 3-2 win after conceding two equalisers.

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